US troops, Sadr militias clash despite truce

Thousands of Sadr's followers, some armed, flocked to hear him deliver his weekly sermon at Kufa. They chanted praise of his defiance of America and said US troops broke the truce.

Two Japanese journalists were killed in an attack on their car in a danger spot well-known for banditry south of Baghdad, said hospital staff displaying two incinerated bodies.

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After a morning marked by sporadic gunfire and a mortar attack on a nearby US base, the main mosque at Kufa just outside Najaf was packed and about 5,000 more Sadr followers crowded outside after walking around a US armored cordon.

The young cleric normally preaches there at 1 p.m. (5 a.m. EDT) on Fridays, the Muslim day of prayer.

"They're trying to arrest Sayyed Sadr and to prevent Friday prayers. They are not respecting the truce," said one worshipper, Abbas al-Mayahi. "They want to get rid of the only voice that calls for armed resistance against the Americans."

From the minaret, the muezzin called for holy struggle, crying: "Yes, yes to jihad."

People chanted: "The Sayyed has shaken America," using a term of respect for Sadr's distinguished religious lineage.

Najaf itself had spent its quietest night in weeks and it was not clear whether the fighters on the outskirts were still under orders from Sadr, who seemed to have yielded to pressure from Shia Muslim elders dismayed at weeks of bloodshed.

US officials, who took no part in negotiating with Sadr, said they would suspend offensive operations in response to his pulling fighters off the streets. But they had warned him that they would return fire if they came under attack.

The Japanese freelance journalists' Iraqi driver, who was wounded, told doctors in Mahmudiya that their car went up in flames when it was hit, apparently by a rocket-propelled grenade near the town, 20 miles south of the capital.

Japan's Foreign Ministry confirmed the attack, which took place on Thursday, but said the fates of Shinsuke Hashida, 61, and his 33-year-old nephew Kotaro Ogawa were unclear.